Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton had nothing new to offer on Lonzo Ball’s status, other than that the rookie continued to rehab his left knee sprain prior to Friday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets. Walton did, however, dispute the notion, posed by one reporter at the Barclays Center, that the Crown Prince of Chino Hills was a poor shooter prior to his injury.

“He really started shooting the ball well, honestly, since whatever the date is, somewhere in December,” Walton said. “He was shooting the three-ball at a pretty high clip.”

Walton is right to point back to December as a turning point for Zo’s stroke. Over his last 12 games, dating back to a Dec. 9 win over the Charlotte Hornets, Ball connected on 38.8 percent of his three-point attempts. Prior to that, Lonzo had converted 24.3 percent of his long-range looks.

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Walton, though, insisted that the ends of Ball’s shots don’t matter as much as the means behind them.

“We know that we’re trying to win games and we know we’ve got to make shots to do that, but we also know we’re developing these young players,” he explained. “So whether he’s making or missing shots, we need him taking the right ones.

“And when he’s open, I want him shooting those with confidence because I have all the belief in him that he’s going to be a very consistent three-point shooter as his career goes on.”

As for Zo’s scoring inside the arc, Walton cited the point guard’s 6-foot-6 frame as an important asset for his eventual improvement therein.

“I think his size will become more of an advantage for him offensively as he learns to finish around the rim at this league,” he said. “He’s got such a good feel for the game that he’ll be able to get to those angles and use his size and his length to really create problems for other teams’ defenses, and especially the way he can see the floor. He’s going to keep defenses honest, and being able to finish down there is going to be big for him as he grows in this league.”

So far, Ball has finished fewer than half (48.8 percent) of his shots within three feet of the hoop, per Basketball Reference. That stat figures to trend upward over time as Lonzo’s body matures, to the point where he can both absorb and dole out physical punishment, and he learns how to maneuver around contact.

Right now, though, Zo has bigger fish to fry—specifically, getting his knee back in working order so he can return to practice and reclaim his place in Walton’s rotation thereafter.